The Triangle is becoming an AI hiring hotspot

The Triangle has one of the largest concentrations of new job postings related to artificial intelligence, thanks to its twin metro areas, Raleigh and Durham, a new analysis has found.

Why it matters: As AI emerges as the hottest new thing in tech, cities outside Silicon Valley have a chance to get in on the action — and reap the potentially lucrative economic rewards, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj write.

Driving the news: Raleigh ranked tenth nationally, with 19.7 new AI jobs listed per 100,000 residents. Durham was No. 13, with 18.5.

Between the lines: The Triangle benefits from its cluster of universities with computer science programs, a collection of homegrown tech companies and startups exploring the space as well as large tech companies recruiting locally-based workers.

Zoom in: Unsurprisingly, cities with large concentrations of tech companies ranked best.

• San Jose (142.4 new AI jobs listed per 100,000 residents), Seattle (74.4) and San Francisco (49.3) led the way in the first quarter of 2024 among cities with at least 500,000 residents and 25 newly posted jobs.

How it works: The estimates come by way of UMD-LinkUp, a collaboration between the University of Maryland, job listings platform LinkUp and consultancy/executive firm Outrigger Group.

• The researchers are using AI language models to sift through LinkUp job listings for AI jobs, defined as those that require technical skills to either create or use AI models.
• Their use of AI significantly enhances their accuracy compared to traditional keyword filtering, the researchers say.